The film is about a female Polish gynecologist / sexologist who was fighting in the 1970's for an approval to get her sex guide published. Michalina Wislocka was a very colorful woman. Until now, I have thought that the only notable Polish woman was Marie Curie. Considering that both the Catholic church and the Communist Party shared the same puritan view of sexuality, it is easy to understand that this was not an easy struggle. She teaches Polish women how to improve their sex life, how they can satisfy themselves to obtain orgasm and how a wife can cope with her sadistic husband sexually. Michalina is a vocal supporter of contraception.
The film jumps back and forth in time - without being confusing. We follow her from 1939 - when she and her friend Wanda - look at a young blond man bathing in a lake. Michalina falls immediately in love with Stach, who is a German citizen, but friendly towards the Poles. They marry each other.
In 1941 they were mistakenly arrested by the Germans and destined to be sent to prison camps. Wanda, now a hooker, tells about the mistake to the German officer-in-charge. She offers her body to him, but he is gay and uninterested. He orders her to simulate orgasm loudly to convince his soldiers that he is straight. Wanda and Stach are then released. After the war, they live in a triangular relationship. The agreement is that Stach can have sex with Wanda, but retain his love for Michalina. When Michalina and Wanda both give birth to one children each at the same time (fertilized by Stach), Michalina makes people believe that she is the mother of both. She says that they are twins. It wouldn't look good with Wanda as an unmarried mother and with her best friend's husband as the father of her son. She becomes "Aunt Wanda" instead.
In the 1950's, Stach breaks up the agreement and proposes to Wanda. Michalina discovers innumerable photographs of Stach's mistresses, the wives of colleagues of him at the university. She asks him to leave and files for divorce.
Michalina is employed by an institution in the countryside and falls in love with one of its employees, the former sailor Jurek. He is married and it turns out that he does not want to leave his child.
Michalina is fighting in the 1970's for her book to be published. The communists refuse because they don't want to offend the Catholic church. The Catholic church refuses because it doesn't want to offend the communists. However, a cardinal suggests that she contacts the press. A women's magazine publishes her book in the form of articles.
Michalina convinces the communist head of a publishing house to release her book. A censor allows the book to be published - under the condition that the chapter about female orgasm and the suitable illustrations are omitted - but Michalina rejects it.
My only objection is that the film does not tell anything about how a woman who grew up in the very Catholic Poland became so liberal sexually.
The film is a vivacious biopic. We see nothing about the communists' abuse. They are more or less depicted as narrow-minded clowns. As a comedy, this film is a bit "British" in the form. It may be compared with "Made in Dagenham", which also treated the battle of sexes with a glimpse in the eye. When the spouses of the high-ranking communists used their femininity to persuade their husbands to support the release of the book, I immediately thought of the British film.
There are many steamy sex scenes in this film. I liked the scene, in which Michalina and Jurak made love with each other by the lake one evening. It was wonderfully shot.
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